T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets in Italy

Translations, Appropriations, Canonization (1944-2013)

Series: 

What happened to Four Quartets in Italy? How were they read by Italian intellectuals? This volume traces the history of the Italian reception of Eliot’s masterpiece, from the early struggle for appropriation in literary magazines – where the poems were alternately framed as expressions of resignation or hope, Hermetic grammar or intimate music – to their eventual canonization and illustration. While two Neapolitan translators, influenced by Elio Vittorini, offered an ideological reading, Florentine poets sought to make Eliot’s verses sound precious and obscure. It was a woman poet who first provided a religious interpretation of the poem, a diplomat who finally published it in book form and an Argentinian artist who translated its words into images.
Copyright Year:
2026
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-75994-7
Publication:
29 Apr 2026
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-69170-4
Publication:
14 May 2026
Cover T.S. Eliot’s <i>Four Quartets</i> in Italy

Prices from (excl. shipping):

€121.33€115.00 excl. VAT
Add to Cart
Eleonora Gallitelli, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English Language, Translation and Linguistics at the University of Udine. She has published a monograph and several articles on the translations of works by Dickens, Faulkner, Rushdie and T.S. Eliot in modern Italy.
Contents
Bibliographical Note
Acknowledgements
List of Figures

Introduction

Part 1 Prelude (1925–1944)

1 The Reception of T.S. Eliot in Italy between the Two World Wars
 1.1 From an “Appetizing Morsel” to a “Very Troubled Soul”
 1.2 The Italian Debut of the “Young English Poet”
 1.3 Praz as Mediator between Eliot and Montale
 1.4 Montale as Translator of Eliot

2 Genesis and Critical Reception in the Anglo-American Context
 2.1 Genesis of the Work
 2.2 Critical Reception in the Anglophone Context

Part 2 The Italian Reception in the Periodicals of the 1940s
 3 Elio Vittorini and the “Eliot Affair” in Il Politecnico and Sud
 3.1 Il Politecnico and Sud: a Comparison of the Two Journals
 3.2 Eliot and Anglo-American Poetry in the Two Journals
 3.3 Little Gidding in Il Politecnico
 3.4 East Coker in Sud

4 The London-Florence Axis: Montano, Cecchi, Guidacci and Traverso
 4.1 East Coker: the Fragments Translated by Lorenzo Montano
 4.2 East Coker: Other Fragments Translated by Emilio Cecchi
 4.3 Little Gidding and The Dry Salvages: the Fragments Translated by Margherita Guidacci
 4.4 The Dry Salvages: Leone Traverso’s Translation
 4.5 Burnt Norton: Margherita Guidacci’s Translation
 4.6 East Coker: Emilio Cecchi’s Translation
 4.7 East Coker: Margherita Guidacci’s Translation
 4.8 The Quartets, Cecchi and Mondadori: an Abandoned Edition

Part 3 Complete Translations (1952–2013)

5 The Translations of the 1950s
 5.1 The First Complete Translation by Alfredo Rizzardi in Fiera Letteraria
 5.2 The “Canonized” Translation by Filippo Donini for Garzanti

6 Recent Translations
 6.1 Angelo Tonelli’s Translation (Feltrinelli, 1995)
 6.2 Elio Grasso’s and Roberto Sanesi’s Translations (Palomar, 2000; Book, 2002)
 6.3 The La Capria-Muñoz Multimodal Edition (Enrico Damiani Editore, 2013)

Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
This book will be of interest for academic institutes, libraries, under-graduate and post-graduate students of translation, contemporary English, American and Italian literature, Eliot studies, textual bibliography, reception and publishing studies.
  • Collapse
  • Expand

Manufacturer information:
Koninklijke Brill B.V. 
Plantijnstraat 2
2321 JC
Leiden / The Netherlands
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com